Family Books: Household, Sex, Children, Medicine, Religion...
in chronological order


1611 Bible

1734 Koran

John William Kirton 1831-1892   (1881 Census entry)

Born 3.1.1831. The son of Thomas and Sarah Kirton, shopkeepers in East Smithfield. He was christened on 3.2.1834 at St James, Piccadilly. He became a Baptist Minister and temperance lecturer. Minister of Burslam for four years. A prolific writer. Died 15.6.1892. (Information from Anna Burson)

Happy Homes and How to Make Them or, counsels on love, courtship, and marriage. Printed 1870 by Frome, Birmingham. Published 1874 by Kempster, London. 1897 John Kempster & Co, London. 1957 Marshall, Morgan and Scott, Ltd., London and Edinburgh. [Who were selling large quantities to West African churches in the early 1960s - With only the date "This edition reprinted 1957". Source.. I used to send them!].

Cheerful homes how to get and keep them: or, counsels to those about to marry, and those who are married: A companion to "Happy homes and how to make them." Publisher: 1882 London: Ward, Lock, and Co., Warwick House, Salisbury Square, E.C. New York: 10, Bond Street. "Copyright receipt stamp dated Jan. 1883. - With a list of works published by Ward, Lock & Co" [Catalogue Register of Preservation Surrogates]




About 1880:
Cassell's Household Guide to Every Department of Practical Life: Being a Complete Encyclopedia of Domestic and Social Economy. New And Revised Edition. Four volumes bound as two with four Indexes to Vols and one General Index. Cassell and Company, Ltd, London, Paris, New York (and Melbourne from vol.3).


Annie M. Hewer (Mrs J. Langton Hewer)
In 1929: "State Registered Nurse; Certified Midwife; Member of College of Nursing; Late Hospital Ward Sister". Address on Preface: 64 Finchley Road, London, NW8, January 1929.

March 1891: First edition of Our Baby - For Mothers and Nurses

1920 Baby: from bud to blossom by J. Langton Hewer ; with forewords by Eric Pritchard and Lady Leslie Mackenzie. Publisher: London : Eagle, Star and British Dominions Insurance. 223 pages: illustrations (some coloured): forms; 17 cm [Manchester University Library record on Copac. This does not say "Mrs" so may not be the same person.]

Before 1929: Third Edition revised The Baby of Today - First Principles of his Management "Especially suitable for distribution to young women, Girl Guides girls beginning creche and child welfare work". 4d net. Postage 1p. Supplied at 3/6 per dozen, postage 6d, for distribution at day nurseries and child welfare centres etc. John Wright and Sons Ltd, Bristol. [Details from an advertisement in Our Baby January 1929 page 16A. Copac lists a 6th (1930) 6th edition in 1934 and a 1945 edition.

January 1929: Our Baby - For Mothers and Nurses "Nineteenth Edition, Illustrated, Fully Revised (180th Thousand)". Bristol: John Wright and Sons Ltd. London: Simpkin Marshall Ltd. Toronto: The Macmillan Company of Canada Ltd.


June 1904 The Methodist Hymn Book London. Wesleyan Conference Office. "the lineal descendent... of
the volume so long known as 'Wesley's Hymns' for which John Wesley wrote a celebrated Preface in 1779". Inscribed Henry H. Moss - 7th March 1914. Note on title pagge "ETHEL: 409 In heavenly Love. 410 Dear Lord and Father. 422 Talk with us Lord. 537 My God! I know, I feel Thee mine. 568 O the bitter shane and sorrow: All - Some - Less - None of self . 799 Lord dismiss us with thy blessing.


Iwan Bloch 1872-1922)

Block. I. 1907 Das Sexualleben unserer Zeit in seinen Beziehungen zur modernen Kultur Marcus, Berlin - 1st edition

There were six editions in the one year (1907). The sixth edition was "in the press" in October 1907 (Block. I. 1908, p.761, footnote 1). The first edition was issued nine months before (Block. I. 1908, p.vi) - about February 1907? The third edition was three months after the first ((Block. I. 1908, p.viii). The English edition in 1908 was a translation of the sixth edition.

Block. I. 1908 The Sexual Life of Our Time In its Relations to Modern Civilisation London: William Heinemann (Medical Books Ltd) - "By Iwan Bloch, M.D. Physician for diseases of the skin, and for disease of the sexual system in Charlotttenburg, Berlin. Author of Origin if Syphilis, etc. - Translated by M. Eden Paul, M.D.. translator of Toldt's Atlas of Human Anatomy", etc."

First published September 1908 - New Impressions: November 1910 - March and November 1913 - August 1914 - March 1919 - September 1920 - May 1922 - May 1923 - October 1924 - March 1925 - June 1926 - January 1928 - June 1930.

"The subject is no doubt one which appeals to and affects the interests of all adult persons, but the publishers have, after careful consideration, come to the conclusion that the sale of the English translation of the book shall be limited to members of the legal and medical professions"


1933 The Methodist Hymn Book Copyright December 1933. London. Methodist Conference Office. 23-35 City Road, EC1. Preface "Methodism was born in song". "The collection of 1780 was meant to serve a movement, this to serve a church". "like its predecessors... intended for use in private devotion as well as in public worship". Inscribed "Ethel Moss. Helmsley, Western Road, Billericay, Essex".


John Gibbens (John Hartley Gibbens)
1946: MB (Cambridge), MRCP (London). Medical Officer to the Babies' Club, Chelsea. Late Chief Assistant to the Children's Department, St Thomas's Hospital and the Infant's Department, Queen Charlotte's Hospital

1936: The Care of Children from One to Five Years Publisher: London : Association of Maternity & Child Welfare Centres, 1936. eight introductory pages. 126 main pages.

1938: Posture and Exercise for Young Children Publisher: London: National Association of Maternity and Child Welfare Centres and for the Prevention of Infant Mortality. 23 pages

1940: First edition of The Care of Young Babies The preface refers to existing books for the "young woman... bringing up her child" being "full of descriptions of dread diseases". About 70 pages (out of 174) of Annie M. Hewer's Our Baby (1929 edition) fit this description. It is not clear why Dr Gibbens thinks parents (father's role is discussed) in the 1940s only needed a chapter on "Minor Ailments", but it may have reflected changing patterns of health care. The balance of issues is similar in Gibbens and Benjamin Spock

1946: The Care of Young Babies Second edition. London. J. & A. Churchill Ltd. 104 Gloucester Place. Portman Square. 7 plates and 7 text figures. eight introductory pages. 200 main pages including index.

1946: The Care of Children from One to Five Years London. J. & A. Churchill Ltd. 7 plates. eight introductory pages. 200 main pages

1947: Chelsea Babies' Club (London) Recipes for food and conduct by James L. Chisholm, John Gibbens [and others] New edition, enlarged and revised.

1947: The Care of Babies and Young Children in the Tropics Publisher: London : National Association of Maternity and Child Welfare Centres and for the Prevention of Infant Mortality. 15 pages.

1961: The Care of Children from One to Five Sixth edition - Appears to have been the last.

1962: The Care of Young Babies Fifth edition - Appears to have been the last.




Benjamin Spock (Benjamin Mclane Spock) 2.5.1903-15.3.1998

1946: The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care. Duell, Sloan and Pearce (USA). This edition had 58 printings and was the best selling new title issued in the USA since best-seller lists began in 1895

Name was changed to Baby and Child Care

1955: Baby and Child Care [Benjamin Spock] published London: Bodley Head. First "English" edition. Reprinted 1956. 474 pages: illustrated.

1957: Baby and Child Care. Pocket Cardinal. New York. Second, 1957 edition (see date in text on page 495), but the 173rd printing (September 1967). This copy bought in the United Kingdom.

Mark McCrum and Matthew Sturgis

1999: 1900 House Macmillan: Channell 4 Books







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